International AIDS Meeting Satellite Focuses on AIDS Research at NIH

During the XIX International AIDS Conference, which was held July 22–27, 2012, in Washington, DC, NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D., joined other National Institutes of Health (NIH) leaders in presenting advances and challenges in AIDS research. Dr. Volkow focused on seek, test, treat, and retain strategies that NIDA-funded research has recently shown to prevent HIV infection, particularly among injection drug users, and on a second NIDA study that found primary care physicians may defer antiretroviral treatment for their patients who inject drugs, despite evidence that treating both HIV and substance use disorders can reduce or eliminate HIV transmission. She described NIDA priorities for developing a heroin vaccine and opiate addiction treatment medications, especially those that are not based on opiate agonists. The satellite was chaired by Jack Whitescarver, Ph.D., NIH Office of AIDS Research, and featured NIH Director Francis S. Collins; Anthony Fauci, M.D., and Carl Dieffenbach, Ph.D., National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Avi Nath, M.D., National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; and Robert Yarchoan, M.D., National Cancer Institute. A recording of the session and a transcript are available on the Kaiser Family Foundation website.